With the aim of putting the Philippines in the map of Southeast Asia’s top shopping destinations, Duty Free Philippines Corporation (DFPC) inaugurated its newest downtown off-airport store called the Duty Free Luxe.

“Today marks the culmination of an idea that began years ago. An idea of a world-class duty-free store that will put the Philippines as top-of-mind shopping destination to boost the country’s shopping tourism,” said DFPC Chief Operating Officer Pelagio Angala.

Senate Committee on Tourism Chair Senator Nancy Binay, DFPC COO Vicente Pelagio Angala and Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez graced the ribbon cutting and Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Friday.

The launch also signaled the start of the Christmas season with a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The 20-foot red and gold tree is made of solihiya, rattan balls, capiz, burlap and Anahaw designed by Tamili Exports and enhanced by Gideon Hermosa.

Conveniently located at the Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City, the downtown store houses international high-end retail brands that are exclusively available at Duty Free Luxe such as Gucci Beauty (make up line), Giorgio Armani Beauty (make up line), Hogan (shoes) and MCM (leather goods).

Duty Free Luxe also houses high-end brands in fashion, cosmetics, fragrance, confectionery, wine and spirits to provide more options to balikbayans, overseas Filipino workers, frequent travelers, and more importantly, the foreign tourists.

“We acknowledged our vital role and to stay ahead of our competitors and to strengthen the Philippines as a great destination for travelers, we continue to explore ways to offer unique and extraordinary experiences that cannot be replicated easily,” Angala said.

In the aftermath of the series of earthquakes that hit Southern Mindanao, state-run Social Security System (SSS) said its members and pensioners may now avail of their Calamity Assistance Package to assist in their recovery.

SSS President and CEO Aurora Ignacio said that aside from the calamity loan, they will offer an advance three-month pension and direct house repair and improvement loan starting 18 November 2019.

“It is unfortunate that the series of strong quakes greatly affected their daily living. That’s why we prioritized the immediate approval of granting calamity assistance in order to extend financial help to our members and pensioners in the affected areas,” Ignacio said.

According to the pension fund, more than P443 million has been allotted for calamity loan assistance, which will benefit more than 54,000 potential borrowers in the calamity-stricken areas.

Also, the SSS said that members who wish to avail of the loan must have at least 36 monthly contributions, six of which should have been paid within the year of application.

“The calamity loan is payable in two years in equal monthly installments with an annual interest rate of 10 percent and one percent monthly penalty for late payments. To further help our member-borrowers in reducing their expenses, the one percent service fee will be waived,” Ignacio explained.

Signify, the world leader in lighting, has launched Philips Hue, the personal smart lighting system that allows people to control the lights in their home or from anywhere in the world using a smart device. Filipinos can now experience light in a whole new way through intuitive technologies combined with high-quality LED lighting. Choosing from a spectrum of more than 16 million colors, Philips Hue lets you personalize your home lighting experience with custom settings and program timers to and create the perfect ambiance for any occasion.

Philips Hue lets you create the perfect ambiance at home with your scenes and routines — all throughout your day. Here are just a few ways how:

Philips Hue lights can serve as your gentle wake-up call in the morning by automatically increasing brightness to ease you into the day.

Don’t worry about leaving your lights turned on. You can control your Philips Hue lights from anywhere, just with the app.

Set your lights to welcome you home after a long day out by enabling the geofencing feature on the Philips Hue app. You can also set the right mood with light scenes like a Tropical Twilight or Tokyo Lights or add a customized scene to your liking.

Set up a truly immersive entertainment experience by syncing your lights with music, videos, and games with Philips Hue. You can also easily communicate through voice commands with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Nest and Apple HomeKit and even synchronize the smart lights with Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

Tell your go-to smart assistant like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, “Good night,” and your lights will automatically dim to prepare you for a comfortable sleep.